A long-shot plan backed by multi-millionaire Timothy Draper to split California into six states has gained enough signatures to place it for the November 2016 ballot, the plan's supporters said Monday.
Draper, a founder of a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that has invested in Twitter, Skype and Tesla, among other companies, has been campaigning for months for a ballot initiative to break the Golden state into smaller entities with better serving localized governments, the Associated Press reported. "#SixCalifornias will be submitting signatures in Sacramento tomorrow for placement on the November 2016 ballot. Stay tuned for coverage!" a Twitter account belonging to the nonprofit Six Californias tweeted on Monday.
Since the campaign has gathered more than the approximately 808,000 signatures needed to place the measure on the ballot, Draper and other supporters plan to file the signatures with California Secretary of State Debra Bowen on Tuesday, Roger Salazar, a spokesman for the campaign, confirmed Monday.
"It's important because it will help us create a more responsive, more innovative and more local government, and that ultimately will end up being better for all of Californians," Salazar said. "The idea ... is to create six states with responsive local governments - states that are more representative and accountable to their constituents."
Draper and other supporters have claimed that the state's 38 million people would be better served by smaller governments and elected officials who would be able to work more closely with their constituents, USA Today reported. "If we have six Californias and we in effect dissolve the one we've got, those six allow us a new start," Draper says in a video posted on the Six Californias website. Each state, which would have its own capital and legislature, would be able to write its own constitution.
But the plan has raised bipartisan hackles across the state, with critics claiming that it stands little chance of gaining voter approval. Even if it receives support from voters, it is highly unlikely that the Congress will pass the plan. "This is a colossal and divisive waste of time, energy, and money that will hurt the California brand," said Steven Maviglio, a Democratic political strategist who has formed the group OneCalifornia with GOP strategist Joe Rodota to fight Draper's plan. "It has zero chance of passage. But what it does is scare investment away... at a time when the Governor is leading us to an economic comeback."
According to USA Today, the six carved out states would look like this:
Jefferson: The northern part of the state, including Humboldt and Mendocino counties.
North California: The wine country counties of Sonoma and Napa, as well as the Sierra Nevada region.
Silicon Valley: Including San Francisco, San Jose and most of what's considered the San Francisco Bay Area.
Central California: The vast central valley farm region, including Tulare and Fresno counties.
West California: Including Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.
South California: Including what's called the Inland Empire of San Bernadino and Riverside, plus San Diego.
California is also the third largest state by area, taking in almost 164,000 square miles of coastline, mountain ranges, several huge cities such as Los Angeles and San Diego, and desert.
